Lucky Duck
by two steps left
Summary: "You don't need to shout all the time, I'll still listen even if you don't." "I don't shout for you to listen!" "Then why do you shout?" SqualoxOC. slow start.


**AN; I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn or any recognizable characters in this story. K thanks, have fun.**

* * *

'Lady Luck favours the bold.' I heard once upon a time.

Perhaps that's why she hates me.

What a sad, strange thought… and it's not even eight yet. Taking another bite into my delicious butter and brown sugar toast, I hummed in approval. Brown sugar is great.

"Oi!" little brother shouted, followed by the rapid thumps of his descent down the stairs.  
"Honoka! where's my gear?" he demanded, his head sticking in from the kitchen entrance. With his urgent tone came his bedraggled appearance; shirt inside out, one sock on, loose leaf papers in hand, yet strangely enough his hair was still done up in that perfectly over fluffed look of his.

"Your gear's by the couch where you last left them." I gestured between my bites of toast. He darted off to the living room like Hades was on his tail. I hear subtle crashing noises in the next room over followed by the angry muttering of curses. Knowing what'll be coming next, I quickly down what's left of my milk and cleared my throat.

"Honoka! Where's my un-" "Your uniform's in your bag already." I call out before he can even finish.  
He runs past the kitchen door again, this time with his bag of kendo equipment thudding against the floor with him. Soon enough, I hear a hurried 'thanks!' and a 'see you at school' followed by the sound of a door slamming shut and the house is quiet again.

Wordlessly, I pick up both my plate and my little brothers and set it on the kitchen countertop. Slipping the untouched pieces of French toast I had made for him into a new zip-lock bag. I then placed both plates into the sink and put his glass of milk back into the fridge. Turning around, I leaned against the countertop almost gingerly and stared hard at the empty room. Listening at the drip drops of the faucet beside me sound gently for a good few moments before finally giving a little smile and begin gathering my things for school.

* * *

"Honoka-chan!" Someone calls out for me. Staggering a bit in my steps, I glanced up from my novel and felt a smile break across my face seeing the head of white jog towards me.

"Good morning Ryohei-san."

Sasagawa Ryohei, perhaps my oldest friend and classmate, slows from his jogging down to my turtle paced walking. Thank you very much Ryohei.

"It's extremely not fair that you're still so formal! Aren't we friends!?" The _extreme_ individual cried out, _extremely_ offended.  
Smiling, I folded the corner of the page before closing the book and slipping it back into my bag.

"Good morning Ryohei-kun." I tried again. A booming, rumbling sort of laughter sounded joyously from him. Ryohei had a great laugh; it was bright and honest, with the deep vibrations like a bass and shook a person so hard, they could feel it in their bones. It wraps around a person like a hug and surrounds them, effectively affecting the people around him with his happiness and best of all, his warmth.

"Where's Kyoko-chan this morning?" I ask smiling, noting the lack of a certain kohai of mine. Ryohei retracted his arm back to scratch the back of his head thoughtfully.

"Ehh… I think she mentioned walking together with your brother this morning?" I felt a little bit of unease settle in my stomach.

Kyoko and Kensuke? Together?

"Oh! Honoka-chan! I saw the most extremely crazy guy just now!" He cuts in excitedly.

"Really?" I ask, grateful, though only partially listening to the change in topic "How was he crazy?"

"He was running extremely fast! In his underwear!" This caused another stutter in my step.

"Underwear?" Well it's been a while since we've had one of those, with Hibari-san running Namimori so well and all.

"But then the craziest part was that he ran into a moving truck then EXTREMELY disappeared!"

Before I could question just what he had meant when he said 'disappeared' (just to be sure my friend hadn't accidentally witnessed something like a hit and run) he halted in his steps and his eyes lit up.

"Ah! That's him!"

Pausing next to Ryohei, I look up. Sure enough, there before me, by the gates of Namimori Middle was a rather short boy with a large and soft looking head of brown hair, dressed only in a pair of sky blue boxers and with his hand held out asking Kyoko to go out with him.

Asking Kyoko to go out with him.

In nothing but his boxers.

"Oh my…" My hand made its way up to cover my mouth from the shock.

The youngest Sasagawa seemed to have made the same connection too because all of a sudden she screamed and ran off with her eyes shut tight.

"Kyoko!" Ryohei yelled, quickly taking off after his sister.

Still in a bit of shock from the sheer absurdity of things, I barely took notice of my brother stalking towards the small boy furiously. My eyes widen in disbelief when I see him close in on the first year, fist raised. I suck in a breath to shout but it's too late.

"Bastard!"

A resounding _smack_ across the face left the poor boy motionless on his back, staring up at the sky.

"Kensuke!" I shout aghast. His eyes shift quickly towards me before flinching back. His gaze drops back down towards the boy and spits out "pervert." before striding briskly back inside the school gates, leaving the boy bare against the ground, and me gaping for words.

A soft groan from the younger boy is what startles me out of my stupor. Rushing over to the kid, I drop to my knees, hands out hovering around the boy's face trying to assess the damage.

"Oh are you alright? Are you bleeding? How many fingers am I holding up?" Quickly raising two fingers I waited his response as his eyes focused onto my hands.

"A-ah, two? And it's fine. I'm okay." The boy stammered out nervously.

I take his face into my hands carefully and examine the place he was punched. Although just punched in the face, didn't seem to be suffering any damage. The bruise I was expecting to be forming didn't exist and there were no signs of a concussion or even a bump.  
How strange. Kensuke is strong, I know that, and he didn't look like he was holding anything back in that punch at all. How very strange…

"Eto…"

Realizing I've been holding onto his face for a while now, I scramble to my feet and quickly help the boy up, apologizing and bowing.

"I am so sorry for my brother. It was completely unacceptable and out of line, he doesn't normally act like this. I hope you can forgive him."

The boy let out what could be roughly associated as a squawk, as though he was surprised someone was apologizing.

"E-eto. I-It's fine. I-it's my fault for confessing so strangely." Even though he was still stammering, I was relieved that he seemed to becoming less frantic.

"I'll go have a talk with my brother now about this. Again, I'm so sorry." Bowing again I hurry to catch up with my brother.

* * *

By the time I made it to the classroom, the entire class seemed to have heard the story from Kensuke.

"Wow and what are you going to do about it?" One of my brother's friends asks. Kensuke was sitting on his desk, his legs on his chair and the rest of the boys in our class gathered around him.

"Me? I need to defend Kyoko-chan's honour of course!"

I squeeze my way through the crowd until I was right by my brother.

"Kensuke," I began cautiously as he looks over "can I talk to you for a bit?"

"Yea, yea, hold on." He turns back to his friends but before he can start again I grab onto his arm.

"Now?" He looks at me annoyed but much to my relief stands up to follow me anyways.

"Hey," he calls back to his friends "tell Dame-Tsuna that I challenge him to a fight during lunch today in the gym!" There is a chorus of whooping and approval as I hurriedly led my brother out the classroom and a little ways down the hall. Once we were, what I judged, a safe distance away from the class I stopped and turned to my brother.

"What were you thinking?" I ask quietly. Kensuke blinked at me. "Wha-"

"Hitting a younger boy like that!" I continue getting more worked up at his lack of response "Was that really necessary? He didn't do anything wr-"

"Oh so you're saying that little pervert should get away with what he did just cause he's younger?!" Kensuke demands.

"No!" I cry "I'm saying that you shouldn't punch him-"

"He's an exhibitionist! A pervert! And to Kyoko-chan! You've known her for years now, are you saying he should just go unpunished?" Kensuke was practically shouting now. Obviously getting angry now, he took a step towards me. I took one back.

"T-that's not what I mean!"

"That kid needs to understand that his kind of behaviour is not acceptable!"

This is no good, no good at all. He's getting mad, I don't mean to get him mad. I try to come up with words to say, and end up tripping over my own tongue. Why isn't this working? I just don't think he should be so harsh with the boy. I mean sure he may have gone a little far with the whole boxers thing but he really deserve to be hi-

"Honoka!" He grabs hold of my hands, which had begun flailing or shaking sometime, I'm not too sure when, as I tried to come up with words. I look up and realize he's been calling my name for a while now.

Kensuke just stands there for a while, looking at me strangely in a way I don't recognize. I understand; must look like a wreck.

"I'm sorry." He mutters "But I'm doing this for Kyoko-chan's sake. You understand don't you?"

I don't.

But I nod anyways.

"Good girl."

* * *

**Third person P.O.V**

The light steam from his espresso didn't hinder the baby in anyway as he took a sip, his eyes locked onto the two figures before him.

The taller one, the boy, leaned over to knock foreheads with his sister briefly. She wouldn't look at him, her eyes tied to the floor. His hands still holding hers, he tugged; he smiled, whispering something to her, urging her to smile or laugh. He bends down into her line of sight so she can't look away and says something. Finally, the corners of her mouth twitch up and he grins widely. Together they walk back down the hall and return to class.

The baby knows that interfering with these two children wouldn't be the best idea, really it's none of his business, but his gut tells him that it'd be worse not too and so he toys with the thought. It's not a part of his original plan, and he can't say for certain that it is now. He just thinks it's a shame there's such potential being suppressed like that.

And that it's little sad the way the girl's smile can't reach her eyes.


End file.
